18yearoldestatetoberebuilt

From: Shenzhen Daily

Updated: 2007-06-21 00:06

AN 18-YEAR-OLD housing estate in Luohu District will finally be rebuilt after prolonged negotiations between the municipal government and property owners, the Daily Sunshine reported yesterday.

Twenty-four buildings, in poor conditions due to shoddy construction, at the 66,000-square-meter Ludancun housing estate will be demolished, and 10 skyscrapers will be built at the site to accommodate residents, according to a draft plan revealed by the municipal land resources and housing management bureau Tuesday.

A swimming pool, a kindergarten and a basketball court will be built at the new housing estate, according to the plan, which will be submitted to the municipal government for approval by the end of the month.

The government will take over 900 flats and turn 26,000 square meters of land into public park areas, according to the plan, which won support from 99.17 percent of the property owners.

However, it is not clear how long it will take the government and the residents to agree on details concerning compensation and relocation.

Ludancun was completed in 1989 by the city government for public servants and employees of State-owned companies. But because sea salt was used in construction, the buildings have serious quality problems, which were noticed by the city government in 2000.

Only about 200 families are still living in the area, and the rest have moved out of the housing estate because of safety concerns. Those who remain in the housing estate have to put up with cracked walls, exposed steel bars and even leaking roofs on rainy days.

Ouyang Jia, 69, told the Daily Sunshine that he had to remove all electric wires in his bedroom to avoid accidents.

The municipal government has been considering rebuilding the housing estate since 2000, and has so far produced four plans, but none of the plans won the full support of the property owners.